I am looking at a Ruger Hawkeye(I have only had 77s),do they have a decent trigger or should I plan on replacing it?

Have a nice day!

The trigger on my Hawkeye was very crisp, no creep at all, but kind of heavy. About 6 lbs I would guess. I bought a replacement spring (takes a minute to replace) from ernierthegunsmith.com, and that reduced the pull to about four lbs. Much cheaper than a new trigger.

Blackeye
I am on my third Hawkeye, and my trigger experience is the same as McInnis'- However, I am fortunate to have a local 'smith that tuned the trigger for less than the price of a box of ammo.

Royce

McInnis,
thanks for that info,I think that I will do the same(surely even I can replace a spring).

BD

Mine has slight creep and is about 6lbs. Looks like I am going to have to try one of the springs McInnis posted.

The Hawkeye trigger is one of the easiest to fix of any. A lot of the time the factory pull will be fine, but if it doesn't suit you it is cheapo to get fixed. Or, if you know anything about triggers, the job can be done in less than half an hour. I have done several myself.

Is the trigger basically the same as what it replaced? I just bought an ultralight in .257 Roberts, the trigger is a bit stiff but breaks nice. My thoughts were to leave it alone. What I really like is the new trim walnut stock, very nice.

The trigger is very simlar to the Mark II's trigger, which is also easy to fix.

John,

References, links, pics, to the "fix", please.

Thanks,

SM

This is what dad has used on several Ruger 77 Mk II's. Not sure the difference in the new trigger, but I guess they're similar.

When the picture opens up you'll have to click on it to zoom in for the writing to clear up, at least on my system I had to. The embedded image won't be clear at all, but going to the page will be ok.

http://www.centerfirecentral.com/images/trigger.gif

Don't take any off the spring to start. Stoning the trigger top to 90 degrees (so the sear doesn't have to "lift") and polishing will usually get you 3 to 3 1/2 pounds of pull, with a lot of creep until you work on the sear.

J.B, I've done many trigger jobs on the mkII's using the diagram you can find on the web when you google it, but haven't had any luck finding any thing with pictures and dimensions for fine tuning the Hawkeye trigger. I had higher expectations of the LC6 trigger and am somewhat dissapointed. Like someone else said, could you please post a diagram or pictures. Thanks, Chief

Here's an update on the ruger hawkeye trigger adjustments. The diagram for the mkII on centerfirecentral.com will work for the sear notch area. I just did mine, but left .021" bearing surface just to be safe. I polished all bearing surfaces and bolt face engagement area. The "trigger" was pretty good except I beveled the trigger sear engagement area with some 400 grit sandpaper at a 45 degree angle @ around .003" (doesn't take much). I put everything back together and it is very impressive now. Smooth, no creep and around 2.5 pounds. You don't even need the lighter spring. Very comparable to the Timney on my m1917 if you can believe that. Remember, do this at your own risk and use the proper tools (depth gauge works great). I will not be held responsible for a job gone wrong. Thanks, Chief

could anyone post a pair of close up photo's of the mark II trigger and sear along side close up photos of the newer LC6 trigger and sear for all of us to see? (both sets removed from the action for photo)

would really apreciate being able to see what ruger did between the two designs.

Edit:
heck i can take a photo of my mark II this weekend if someone else could do a set from the hawkeyes

Sorry, guys, I don't have any photos. But the trigger is so simple (anbd comes apart so easily) that if you've done any trigger work at all, what needs to be done is fairly obvious. Mostly it's a matter of honing the engagement surfaces.

my wanting photos wasn't to figure out what was needed to be done, it was to see what changes ruger made between the two types.

There isn't a heck of a lot of difference. They both work and come apart the same way.

Just finished with one... the gun SUCKED in the accuracy department, wood touching big time at the forend. The trigger SUCKED too, REALLY bad IMHO. I'd say 6-7 pounds and about 3-4 different stops in the pull IE creep.

Bedded the gun, and reworked the trigger down and polished and relieved the spring and its acceptable now and finally shoots around 1.5 inches at 100.

I wouldn't buy one on a bet but I don't want to get on my soapbox...

My brand new Hawkeye is at Ruger getting some work done.

I'll defer my opinion on the Hawkeye until I see what Ruger does about it...

Trigger was okay. Too stiff for my taste, I ordered a new spring and it is waiting to be installed. Prefer the Accutrigger.

J.B is correct, the trigger is a very simple design. If you've done a mkII you can handle this one becasue the sear is almost identical and that is where the most material needs to be removed. I took about .015" material from the sear and ended up with .021" engagement. Make sure you use the appropriate tool to measure the depth of the sear engagement area (depth gauge works pretty good). One guy says he had to do alot of work to get his hawkeye to shoot 1 1/2 inch groups. Mine shot this well out of the box with cheap a$$$ ammo. I shot some 1 inch groups the other day with some handloads before I worked my trigger over. Can't wait to take it out now and try it.

Lucky with my 2 Hawkeyes in .358, one of which came from JB. Just clipped the springs gradually until getting a 3# pull. No creep that I feel. Do some Hawkeyes have creep?